Hello everyone! I'm a super new piggie owner and I'm having some problems. My guinea pig Peggy started to urinate pink and orange-ish liquid. We have only had her for less than a month, and have only fed her plain pellets and timothy hay. We are trying to introduce her to leafy greens because I don't think she is used to eating vegetable. So far she is very picky and refused carrots, apple, orange, and grapes, the only things she is willing to eat is bok-choy and lettuce (not iceberg). She ate one piece of bok-choy and one piece of lettuce the night before she urinated pink. A little while ago she also started to sleep/lay down a few times during the day, but is very alert when we call her name, though I can't be sure if that's new because I wasn't home around noon for the last few weeks. So far everything else is normal and there are no other symptoms of illness and no pain. Is she sick? Or is everything normal (napping during day, picky eating, pink urine)? I would really appreciate it if anyone can answer these questions, we are all very worried. Thank you!
Hi!
Is your guinea pig a single or has she company? Guinea pigs are group animals and should not be kept alone. Especially young piggies are desperate for the support and guidance of other piggies.
Pickiness when eating, sleeping a lot from boredom when there is nopig to interact with, later on developing annoying attention seeking behaviours is typical for single piggies that lack the round the clock stimulation and interaction from their own kind. A human just cannot replace that.
The best health cure you can give a single piggy is a same gender companion.
Please make sure that you double check the gender of both piggies involved before any introductions and that you follow our bonding tips if you do for success. You cannot just dump another piggy into a cage.
Companionship
Here is our diet guide. You may find that very helpful. Most of our long term members feed a diet that is based around our sample diet. We have made good experiences with it in terms of greater longevity (barring medical problems).
Guinea pigs like all rodents don't have a vomit reflex but they have double the amount of taste buds compared to us humans (and a multiple to that of cats). They learn what is safe to eat from their elders by smell and by snatching food from their elders' mouths. They also learn drinking from awater bottle from their elders' example. If that hasn't happened, then it is all much more difficult and takes a lot longer to establish. The pickiness at the beginning is a simple survival reflex when a piggy doesn't know what is safe and what is poisonous. We cannot tell it that.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diet
You control the food intake by weighing and the overall weight/size ratio by feeling around the ribcage (for details see the guide below). Generally you weigh a piggy once weekly as part of their normal health check. You switch to weighing once daily at the same time in the feeding cycle (like before its dinner or breakfast) if you suspect illness. If you have anxiety issues, please ask your partner/family to do it for you as you can become easily obsessed with health worrying. 80% or more of the daily weight intake should be hay; that is not something you can control by just watching your piggy nibble on a strand.
The Importance Of Weighing - Ideal Weight / Overweight / Underweight
How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pig
Blood is generally pink and not orange/rusty in colour. With urinary tract issues, you can get deep red pees that do not contain blood and clear pees that score high on a stick at the onset; it is not quite clear cut. See a vet if there is a noticeable deterioration (loss of appetite/weight over 50g/2 oz in within a day or two) and giving sound/being in pain when peeing or pooing.
If your piggy has never had much in the way of veg, then the colour is very likely from a stronger reaction to what you are feeding in that respect. If the urine is clear when it leaves the body but discolours in contact with the air, which most urine does, then that is oxidisation. Most piggies do that as urine usually contains a certain amount of bacteria. Any patches should dry an even colour with a slightly darker rim in the same tone. Blood in the urine doesn't mix; it is visible either as small pinkish/reddish dots in a dried urine puddle or as a reddish ring around the urine puddle that is not the same colour as the puddle if there is a lot of blood in the urine. I hope that that helps you?
As your baby is still popcorning, I would frankly not worry.
You can find most of these and a number more useful guides, like how to understand piggies and a use a spot of piggy whispering to make friends with them as well as learn what is normal and what is not via our New Owners guide collection:
New Owners' Problem Solver And Information Collection
To the piggie forum.